Adria Malcolm

independent visual journalist and cinematographer
  
Forced to Choose
Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico
Biography: Adria Malcolm is an independent visual journalist and cinematographer based in Albuquerque, New Mexico and is a founding member of American Reportage - a photographic collective focusing on long-form stories about the American condition. She has... MORE
Private Story
Forced to Choose
Copyright Adria Malcolm 2024
Updated Jan 2022
Topics Journalism, Photography

Forced to Choose

Published by ProPublica on September 17, 2021. 

In 1996, a welfare reform act rebranded public assistance as the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program that created three new provisions that must be met by those applying for public assistance. One of those provisions was to comply with paternity and child support enforcement as states would be required to pursue the fathers of children whose mothers had applied for TANF, as a means of the government recouping the money paid out through the program.

Some states, like Arizona and Nevada, will seize the full amount of child support in TANF cases. According to statistics from the Human Services Department in New Mexico, roughly half of the average child support payment is passed on to the kids.

ProPublica looked at what harm these practices cause and how ineffective the process is in actually providing support for the most needy of families. I was able to shadow some of the women that gave their own testimonies of experience with TANF applications.

One of those women is Alyssa Davis who sought assistance for her and her then baby Zeppelin. To her shock, she was hassled with child support requirements even though she was in a relationship with his father, to whom she is now married.
“It’s like they wanted us to not be a family unit,’ she said, “which I thought was the opposite of what this whole welfare thing was supposed to be about.”

Read the story reported by Eli Hager for ProPublica here.
LinkedIn Icon Facebook Icon Twitter Icon
2,181

Also by Adria Malcolm —

Story [Unlisted]

Tearsheets

Adria Malcolm
Story [Unlisted]

Long Darkness Before Dawn

Adria Malcolm
Story [Unlisted]

Holy Mountain

Adria Malcolm
Story [Unlisted]

Portraits

Adria Malcolm
Story [Unlisted]

Client Login

Adria Malcolm
Story [Unlisted]

The Hurt Brothers

Adria Malcolm
Forced to Choose by Adria Malcolm
Sign-up for
For more access